History ComicStrip / NonSequitur

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/non_sequitur_inception.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The [[https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/1992/02/16 very first]] strip.]]

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: [[invoked]] Parodied in a one-shot. An art critic finds an empty frame hanging in a gallery and goes into a spiel to the effect of "this is brilliant!" and includes words something like "true art is dead". [[spoiler:Then a maintenance guy comes along and hangs a sign in the frame saying "Exhibit Coming Soon".]]

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: In the Ordinary Basil storylines, the world of Helios has dinosaurs. Basil's newfound friend Louise, for instance, has a pet pteranodon named Beatrice.

* AquaticSauropod: In an ''Ordinary Basil'' storyline, immediately after escaping a hungry ''T. rex'' by swimming to the center of a nearby river to take advantage of the beast's inability to swim, Basil and Louise find themselves quite surprised when the [[ThatsNoMoon "rock"]] they're standing on rises out of the water and reveals itself to be the top of a creature's head. The sauropod, just as startled by them as they are of it, ends up unwittingly helping them reach the entrance to an adjacent upper cavern by throwing them in that direction with a swing of its neck.

* AmoralAttorney: All of them. All the time.

* DeadpanSnarker: Danae.

* OhNoNotAgain: January 28, 2013 recaps the previous week:

%%* BearsAreBadNews: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Don't ask]].

* BearsAreBadNews: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Don't ask]].

* DarkIsNotEvil

* {{Expy}}: Some readers complained that Lucy the horse was an expy of [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Hobbes]], albeit indirectly ("I liked it better when it was with a tiger"). Lucy agreed.

* TheMunchausen: Eddie is like this, often telling outlandish stories about his life at Flo's place, sometimes hoping to mooch a free lunch by telling them. The thing is a few of them are actually true, as Diane and others have found out, so it's very hard to tell which of his stories are true, which are exaggerations, and which are outright lies.

-->'''Flo:''' Really? Diane wanted to be the next ''Pope?!''

* ScamReligion: Danae tries to create one in several strips that adhere to her StrawFeminist tendencies. The most vital Commandments are that girls are superior to boys, ''everyone'' is superior to her, and you aren't allowed to question them. However, she adds a new one whenever she pleases, and at last count, had dozens. Thus far, recruitment is low.

* StrawFeminist: Danae takes the typical little girl's dislike of boys and magnifies it to absurd levels. In the aforementioned ScamReligion, she claims men were created when God - who she naturally perceives as female - ''sneezed''.

** The Graevsytes, a family of monsters often featured in the strip around Halloween, are obviously patterned after Series/TheAddamsFamily and/or TheMunsters.

* SillySpook: Danae's house is haunted by her Great Uncle Reginald, a grumpy old coot who was clearly RichInDollarsPoolInSense during his life. Most jokes regarding him involve [[LuddWasRight his dislike of technology and old-fashioned stuffiness.]]

Originally, the comic was a single-panel gag cartoon, similar to Gary Larson's ''TheFarSide''. It grew more political in tone during the 1990s. The comic has become more traditional, with a multi-panel format and recurring characters.

It's also notably published both as a strip (wide format, like most comic strips) and as a panel (nearly square like ''TheFarSide'') Monday through Saturday, so a newspaper could buy it for either slot. This requires a single-panel installment to be carefully drawn so it could be cropped either way (often with the speech balloon reoriented), and multi-panel installments to be laid out so they can be broken up into two rows. Similarly, Sunday strips are laid out both for traditional layouts and with the panels stacked vertically, which also are manually reoriented by the artist.

* {{Expy}}: Some readers complained that Lucy the horse was an expy of [[CalvinAndHobbes Hobbes]], albeit indirectly ("I liked it better when it was with a tiger"). Lucy agreed.

* EvilLawyerJoke: As many as possible

* DeadpanSnarker: Danae

-->'''Flo:''' Eddie didn't check the tide chart, so his boat got stuck in the mud flats... '''''Again'''''

-->'''Flo:''' So he had to walk all the way back... '''''Again'''''

-->'''Flo:''' Well... Some tourists saw him and thought he was walkin' on watah, so he's become a cult diety... ...Again
-->'''Eddie:''' Hey, it could happen to anyone

-->'''Eddie:''' Don't worry, I tahned them down again